


Abyss

by FireEye



Category: Final Fantasy V
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 03:53:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Travel Advice for Those Wanting to Visit the Town That Time Forgot: Don't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Abyss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vrazdova](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vrazdova/gifts).



> Prompt: _I am really fascinated by the concept of the Phantom Village, a community that was sealed away into the Void when the world split in two a thousand years before the game canon. Everyone who lives there apparently looks (or at least dresses) the same, and no one seems at all perturbed by the fact that they once again 'exist' outside of the Void. I would love to read some crazy meta-fic about this village, either completely on its own or from the POV of our heroes! Who are these people? How has their culture evolved, being completely cut off from all other humanity for so long? What was outside of their village while it was trapped in the Void? Why are they so nonchalant about being back among the rest of the world? SO MANY QUESTIONS_

There was nothing beyond.  Beyond nothing.

The Void.

_Mu_.

The floorboards creaked, and she felt the weight of his footsteps.  Butz joined her where she stood, transfixed.  “Faris?”

“Hey.”  His hand came up, cutting sharply in front of her eyes.  “Are you okay?”

Faris intercepted his hand.  Blinking between him and the abyss, she let go of his fingers and rubbed her forehead with the heel of her palm.  “Aye.  Fine.”

“Yeah... sure.”  Curious, he peered through the door, into the gaping emptiness.  Leaning back, he shoved his hands in his trouser pockets.  “I don’t think we can go through this way.”

At her silence, Butz reached out to pull the door closed.  Faris stared at him, eyes narrow, and he met her gaze with earnest concern.

“You sure you okay?  You look a bit queasy....”

~*~

A more perfect midsummer’s afternoon was unlikely to be had.  The birds were singing life’s joy, the wind breathing through the vibrant trees.  Carts of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables lined the wide street square, free for the taking.  People came and went along their business, polite in greeting, although they stared a moment long as the strangers passed. 

There was something wrong with this blasted town.

“I hate this place.”

“You don’t find it the least bit fascinating?”  Butz chucked the rind of his pomegranate.  Faris watched it fly over the near wall; when she looked back, he was lapping the stray juice off his thumb, eyeing her skeptically.  “You’re a pirate.  How can you _not_ have a sense of adventure?”

A man watched them across the square.  Obscured by the ebb and flow of the crowd, he vanished from sight, and at once Faris couldn’t recall his face.

At the foot of the steps, she hesitated.  Butz disappeared past at the upper landing, and she stared after him for several long moments before following him up the stone stairs.  When she reached the top, she found him standing at the entrance to the inn, holding the door open for her.

 

Smiling, the innkeeper held out the key to her.  Faris tried not to dwell on how the woman’s hand didn’t leave a shadow on the counter in the bright afternoon sunlight.

“Goodnight,” she purred.  “And sweet dreams...”

An unpleasant shiver ran up her spine, and Faris strolled a sight quicker than was perhaps polite to the hall.  Upon reaching the proper door, she jammed the key into its lock, throwing the door open.  The key landed on the small table, and Faris dropped down on the bed, which groaned under her weight.

“Shades, e’ery last one o’ them.”

Leaning down to untie her bootlaces, she glared at Butz’ heels.  “Ye’re more in tune all this mystical nonsense.  How can ye stand it?”

“It’s actually quite pleasant.  Like a bit of a buzz,” he came to stand beside her, and his fingers ghosted up the nape of her neck, leaving a trail of gooseflesh in their wake, “just so.”

Faris knocked his feet out from under him, and he landed heavily on the bed beside her.  Butz sat up, leaning back on his arms as she straightened to kick off her boots.

“Admit it,” he murmured over her shoulder, “it’s nice to sleep in a soft, warm bed once and a while.”

Faris froze, eyeing him sidelong.  “Who said anything ‘bout sleeping?”

“Ah, see,” Butz laughed as she shoved him back against the headboard, crawling over him with a haphazard smirk.  “Now _that_ ’s my captain.”

If Faris had but one thing to say for him, it was that his optimistic enthusiasm was catching.

~*~

The rafters creaked.  The sound wound its way through the walls and into the floorboards.  Lights flickered along the windowpane, no brighter than a procession of candle flames.  Detangling herself from the tangle of blankets and Butz somnolent embrace, Faris sat up, rubbing her eyes.

She wasn’t sleeping, anyway.

Crossing the room as she tightened her bindings, she found the world beyond the window utterly dark.  No light, no movement, not even the trees in the distance.  The darkness seeped into the room from every nook and corner, with a single, dim sconce by the door that cast forth all the light left in the world.

After wrangling on her trousers and throwing on her tunic, she strapped her dagger to her belt, leaving her sword leaning against the wall.  Tucking both pendants under her tunic, she glanced at the bed, to where Butz rested.

Asleep.

Peaceful.

The mere sight of him filled her with cold, silent dread, and the urge to shake him awake.  Instead, she leaned over the bed, kissing his lips softly.  Butz stirred awake, and blinked up at her, stretching.

“What’re you...” Squinting, he lifted his head.  “Where’re you off to?”

“Gonna get me some air.”

“ _Hmm_.”  Dropping back onto the pillow, Butz rolled over.  Faris trailed her fingers down his neck, retracing the distance to pull the blanket up over his shoulder, and he sighed deeply.  A thin grin cracked her lips, and she shook her head.

Grabbing her coat from where it had landed, she pulled it on as she stepped into the unlit hall.

~*~

Wisps of hearth smoke trailed upwards, swallowed by darkness.  The night sky above was purest black and cloudless, and utterly bereft of stars.  Staring into the depth of it, Faris clutched the cold stone railing tightly in an effort to stave off the sudden, dizzying sense of vertigo.

“Faris?” a familiar voice asked, and she whirled about to meet her sister’s ever compassionate smile.  “Can’t sleep?”

“Reina...” Faris cast her gaze about the dark, dead street.  “What’re ye doing here?”

“The same as you, I imagine,” Reina replied.  “Looking for an answer.”

“Ain’t lookin’ for no answers,” Faris said.

“That’s very much like you, I suppose.” Reina’s hand came to rest on Faris’ cheek, and Faris sidestepped her, brushing it away.  Reina’s smile only deepened.  “Still, this town may hold the answer to defeating Exodus.  That is why we’re here, is it not?”

Faris laughed, at once on edge and incredulous.  “That was two years ago, darlin’.”

A shadow collided with her, and she staggered, glancing after it.  The figure disappeared down the stairs, rapid footsteps echoing in the empty streets.  Instinctively, her hands flew from pocket to pocket, finding nothing amiss.  Her fingers twined in the chain around her neck...

“Faris?”

...but the cord was missing.

“Blighter swiped the Shard.”

Faris ran after the shade.  Coat billowing behind her, she leaped from the top of the stairs and into the darkness below.

~*~

Nobody gave her a second glance as she charged through the tavern, rolling over the bar.  Through the back rooms, into the basement, up and out again.

Above a tall flight of stairs across the room, a door slammed closed.  Floors scuffed, plaster cracking, the room was empty, aside from a still form crumpled in the center.  Faris eyed the landing with suspicion, stepping forward and crouching beside the cold body.

And fell forward to her knees. 

Ashen in the dim candlelight, he had bled out, shirt stained a deep, sanguine black.  She pressed her fingers to either side of his neck, pressing her forehead to his.  Closing her eyes, she grasped at threads, focusing the energy past the chill skin beneath her fingertips.  It was a worthless effort.  Butz was gone, his body nothing but an empty shell.

The magic poured into emptiness.

_Mu_.

Faris stripped her coat off.  Sweeping it over him, she tucked the collar up under his chin.  Her breath touched his mouth in a fond farewell kiss.

A shuddering sigh wracked her shoulders; the raw edges of the emptiness in her heart bled a blinding fury.  Shoving off the floor to her feet, Faris lunged for the stair, and conquered it three steps at a time.

~*~

Her shadow kept one step ahead of her – twisting through the labyrinth of rooms and hallways.  At every turn, the flutter of cloth, or the splatter of fresh blood on the door frame, door ajar.  She turned a final corner, and found her quarry trapped by far wall of a dead-end hall.

There was nowhere left to run.

Faris drew her dagger, and the unhallowed blade glistened red.

“Ye’re a dead man.”  She spat, but froze as he turned to face her. 

The smile that lit up his face was familiar, if warped.  “Prescient.”

“Oh, no, no, no.  Ye ain’t him.”  Faris raised her dagger, her lips curled back in a grimace.  “What manner of devilry are ye?”

“I am as he is as you will be.”

“Speak plainly, will ye?”

A soft breath of laughter crossed Butz’ – _not him_ , she reminded herself – lips, and he stepped towards her, keeping his distance to the point of her blade.  “I’m simply a cutthroat murderer, not unlike yourself.”

“That supposed t’be an insult?” Faris asked, circling him likewise, back to the wall.

“Not in the least.”  Facing her square, he crossed his arms, and his smile split into a grin.  “The powers of Light and Darkness don’t care who you are, why should I.”

“What so happens ye want with me?”

“I want your body.”

Pulling her stance inward, Faris twisted the knife in her hand.  “Ye have to come get it.”

“Oh, no.  Not yet.”  The plaster behind her sizzled and cracked.  Faris risked a backward glance, into darkness.

_Mu_.

Her enemy crashed into her, sending them both tumbling over the broken ledge.

~*~

She collided into someone, stumbling past them down the stone steps.  Recovering, she kept running, through the encroaching darkness.  She knew she was inside again when the lamplight burned her eyes, and she scrambled past tables and upturned chairs, into the rooms beyond.

When Faris caught up to him, he spun about to face her, sword in hand.  It wavered as she lunged, and he fell back defensively, eyes wide, parrying her every strike.

Catching his weapon with a twist of dagger, she swept it upward, grabbing for his hand.  Defense breached, she thrust her blade between his ribs.  His sword clattered to the floor, shock and confusion mingled in his expression, and his fingers brushed against her cheek.

“Faris?”

A moment too late, she caught him as he fell, and cradled him on the floor as she sought to staunch the wound.  A spark of white light faded and died in his palm, and she clutched at his hand, struggling to focus as he slipped further away from her.

The magic wouldn’t answer.

 

Dim laughter drifted down.  Her shadow stood on the landing above, beckoning her onward.

~*~

They hit the ground hard, and he heavily landed on top of her.  With a flick of his wrist, he threw the bloodied dagger.  It sank in the door at the center of the room, out of reach.  His hand clamped down around her neck, and he slammed her into the floor, squeezing the breath from her.

Nowhere near drowning.

“You’re a spirited one.  Practically burning up with rage.  I like that.”  The phantom cocked his head, studying her with an empty smile, and eyes of the darkest night.

_Mu_.

“I’m going to swallow you whole.”

“Like hell.”

Unable to claw his hand from her throat, Faris spat.  The blood-tinged saliva trickled down his nose, and he laughed, shoving her into the floor again.  There was a jingle in the back of her mind, the playful chiming of a small bell.  Dazed, she reached for it, at once feeling a surge of sheer, otherworldly power.

Everything darkened and twisted, and the thundering whirlwind tore at her skin like sand and ripped at the core of her being.  The pressure gone, Faris clambered to her feet, fingers slipping against the scaled hide.  For a moment, she leaned against Syldra, face against the familiar crest.  The sea dragon’s form melted away to sea froth under her fingertips, and dissipated completely, leaving her empty-handed.

Eyeing the phantom where he had fallen stunned by the summon’s force, Faris rolled her shoulders.

“Come on, then,” she snarled.

Rising to his feet, he grabbed for the dagger.  The door creaked open as he wrenched it from the soft wood, and Faris lunged at him.  Wresting the dagger from his hands, she stomped on it, and sent it sliding across the floor behind her.

Faris shoved him into the darkness beyond the door.  The phantom faltered, slipping from the precipice, managing to catch the doorjamb by the tips of his fingers.

“...Faris?”  The soft fear in his voice hitched in her lungs.  But his eyes were black, lifeless.

She slammed the door on his fingers.

The door bounced back towards her, and Faris caught it, gaze drawn into the abyss.

 

There was nothing beyond.  Beyond nothing.

The Void.

_Mu_.

**Author's Note:**

> -Written entirely to the Tune of the _Dear Friends_ Arranged Soundtrack.  
>  -Upon reflection, I don't know if it encapsulates the prompt particularly well. I hope you enjoy it all the same.  
> -NO ANSWERS, ONLY MORE QUESTIONS.  
> -THAT DAMNED DOOR.  
> -Butz.  
> -so i writed you a thing i hope you enjoy it because i have no idea what it is that this thing i writed is haaalp x_x


End file.
